My Eli expressed an interest in wearing his bike helmet to his first day of preschool this afternoon because he was afraid something would fall and hurt his head. After explaining to him that I was sure his teacher would have asked us to bring a helmet if it was necessary, over and over again, he was finally a little more comfortable leaving it at home. 

Could it have been a coping mechanism, perhaps? An underlying desire to insure his safety as he approached a super huge milestone with the start of preschool? His first real and significant time away from home.

When we arrived at school, Ms. Jennifer greeted him cheerfully at the door and after he told her, “hello,” he proceeded to demonstrate Tree Pose, the Yoga posture that has the one leg bent with the flat of the foot against the opposite lower leg. He spread his arms way out straight to either side, but said nothing. In all of her graciousness, Ms. Jennifer praised his balance and told him he should teach the move to the rest of his classmates. So, as instructed by his teacher, we followed him inside where he put his backpack up on the hook and then quickly got back into Tree Pose. To the amazement of his other classmates and their parents, Eli seemed content to let them all know what he was about.

Tree Pose isn’t something we regularly practice at home. So his use of it today was very random. Again, perhaps a coping mechanism?

I should have done it, too! It was a little harder on my heart today than I expected. That is silly, by the way. I should have for sure expected it to be hard. My sweet baby guy started preschool! A pretty triumphant milestone, indeed! But, I was ok, mostly because he didn’t cry when we said good-bye. He didn’t run after us or pull on our legs. He wasn’t clingy at all. He was stoic, but not emotional…just taking it all in.

But here, like yesterday, I saved some pictures of the occasion…but this first one is from Sunday. Let me explain… 

If you’ll please direct your eyes to the “i” in Eli’s name, you’ll notice that there is a heart where the dot should be. It just happened when I was writing his name on his back pack. It was as if dotting my “i” with little hearts comes most natually to me and before I realized what I had done, there was a heart dotting the “i” of my BOY’S name on his back pack. With a gasp, I showed Chris and he just shook his head at me. “What did you do?” He asked. I started to try and color over it but then he said that might look bad. At least our guy is in preschool. A heart dotting the “i” in his name is forgivable, I think. I’m reminded of the movie “When Harry Met Sally” when Harry says to Sally, “I know, you’re probably one of those cheerful people who dot their “i’s” with little hearts.” 

In case it isn’t obvious, Eli was very ready to leave for preschool today!

Even for our big preschool guy, the walk to school can be a little long…and Eli prefers to take his time…Daddy helped him out a little today.

Eli and Chris

Me and my sweetest baby boy…not a baby anymore…but when did that happen? Oh, I know…during that blink I just took!

This is where we sign him in and out…

This is Eli’s mail box where he will be responsible for checking it’s contents and placing them in his backpack each day.

He was proud to know right where his backpack hangs…

This is where Eli will sit during circle time. The kids will know their assigned spot when they find their picture. Then, after they are comfortable with their picture, they will start identifying their spot by their name, which is written on the back. Eli already recognizes his name. He’s smart. And his name is short. 😉

The activity that they were to do upon arriving was painting. You might be able to tell that he wasn’t at all into it. I helped him with his smock. He didn’t know what a smock was. Is that a fail on my part? I just never worried about it before. But, doesn’t a smock somehow scream preschool? He whispered to me that he didn’t want to paint. Maybe I helped too much when I told one of the helper teachers that he didn’t want to…but, hey, I was still there and in mom mode. What can I say?

My guess is that it was a great day.

Stay tuned tomorrow when I’m sure I will have an abundance of stories and hullabaloo from both guys to share on their behalf over their first couple of days of school!